Serie A stars shine bright, but Icardi’s absence will hurt the league

Serie A’s biggest stars have already taken center stage, but one of the best continues to be sidelined.

The Serie A season may be just a week old, but the league’s biggest stars are already leaving their marks.

There’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuain at Juventus and Kostas Manolas and Hirving “Chucky” Lozano at Napoli, just to name a few of the superstars who shined brightest this past weekend. All four of these players, for example, scored in Juve’s stunning 4-3 home win against Napoli.

In this cornucopia of foreign talent, there’s something missing. That something is none other than Mauro Icardi.

The Inter Milan star could have joined either Napoli or Juventus, who showed genuine interest in him last month. The proposed deals never went anywhere, including talk of a possible three-team pact with Roma. Icardi could have played in the aforementioned Juventus vs. Napoli match. Instead, the Argentine striker finds himself still locked in a dispute with Inter Milan, but with seemingly no chance at ever playing for them. Antonio Conte, who was hired as manager, has no intention of ever playing him.

The Icardi drama, meanwhile, worsens with each passing day. Conte has left him off the roster in both games Inter Milan have played this season, vowing never to field him as long as he’s with the Nerrazzurri. Icardi’s wife/agent Wanda Nara, a major reason for some of the drama that intensified last season and this summer, has been involved in trying to broker a deal.

Icardi has fought back in recent days, suing the team in an effort to be financially compensated for what he’s been through as well as reinstated to full-team training exercises. This after ESPN reported Icardi had been dropped from the team’s WhatsApp group, which is where players are notified about their training schedules. As a result, the Italian soccer federation’s arbitration committee could be drawn into this mess. If so, they would be expected to reach a verdict on Icardi’s challenge within the next three months.

Nonetheless, that means we won’t see Icardi train or play this calendar year. The team could try to offload him during the January transfer window or reach a loan deal (the latest is interest on the part of PSG) with another club. These two are the only remaining options for a player with so much talent with no possibility of playing. Otherwise, he sits until next summer.

For Icardi, this Dante-like journey to purgatory is unfair to him, the fans and anyone who enjoys great soccer. “Go to hell” is what both sides are saying at the moment. That it has reached this point is a very sad commentary regarding the modern game. There are no winners here. Icardi had a chance to leave, but didn’t. Inter Milan had a chance to reconcile with Icardi, but wouldn’t.

Writing in the Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport this past Saturday, chief editor Andrea Monti asked whether Icardi and Nara’s past declarations of love for Inter Milan were ever truly genuine.

“You can’t help but wonder what’s happened to the torrent of treacle with which the Icardis, up until [Friday], had inundated the club’s fans on social media,” he said. “This spectacular and mortifying soap opera … came from Mauro and Wanda’s own behavior. They made comments and took actions seven months ago that created an irreparable rift within Inter’s dressing room.”

It all means that fans will miss out on one of the world’s most-prolific strikers. We won’t see him score (he netted 124 goals over the past five seasons) or make one of those highlight reel-worthy sublime passes to a teammate to set up a scoring opportunity. All that remains, for now, are the memories of his exploits at the San Siro.

It’s true that Italy’s first division has plenty of superstars. Depriving fans the chance to see Icardi take the field this season is something that truly hurts all of us, including Serie A.